Archive for March, 2007
Lost In Seriality
Derek Kompare, Southern Methodist University — March 29th, 2007|
This promo for the Lost episode "The Man From Tallahassee" aired on March 14. It, and the episode it teased, encapsulates all that is intriguing and problematic about this series (or to be more precise, serial).
Amidst much rapid cutting, explosions, and close-ups, we are essentially told This Is It. This is the one you've been waiting for. Why? The cause of John Locke's paralysis (his pre-crash state, which was revealed way, way back in Season 1's "Walkabout") will be revealed. The ostensibl [...]
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Found in Translation
Faye Ginsburg, New York University, Center for Media, Culture and History — March 28th, 2007|
In January 2007, Amanda Baggs, a 26 year old autistic woman and a neurodiversity activist, launched her video, In My Language, on YouTube, which made riveting use of the medium, immersing the viewer virtually into how she experiences the world in a way different from "neurotypicals". Explaining her work, Baggs writes: "The first part is in my 'native language,' and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as muc [...]
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The Many Lessons of “Spiders on Drugs”
Brian L. Ott, Colorado State University — March 27th, 2007|
If you own a computer and it’s connected to the Internet, then there's a good chance you’ve already seen the clip I've selected to comment on. In January of this year, Andrew Struthers's short-film "Spiders on Drugs" became an overnight Internet sensation, garnering over 750,000 hits on YouTube in its first week. My own interest in the clip is multifaceted. The first thing that struck me about it, aside from the fact that it's ridiculously funny, is that it's a spot on parody of 60s educatio [...]
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“Dreamers”: Cable, The Great American Success Story
Amanda Lotz, University of Michigan — March 26th, 2007|
I first saw this video at the 2006 National Show of the National Cable and Telcommunications Association (NCTA). Although I've seen quite a few industry produced and promoting videos in the past few years, this one was jaw-droppingly bold in its unflinching support of the cable industry and its mythology of the industry as founded by a "rag-tag group of dreamers."
I find this piece fascinating on a number of levels. This long version is the richest and likely only played in fora such as the [...]
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The Signal Through the Noise: Hillary Clinton “1984″ Video Mashup
Richard Edwards, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, School of Informatics — March 24th, 2007|
This widely circulating (2.5 million views and counting) video mashup of Hillary Rodman Clinton has been declared by at least one expert as "a watershed moment in 21st century media and political advertising." (San Francisco Chronicle). Like many discussions of political advertising in the public sphere, the ad itself is not usually examined through the lens of media history and theory. In punditry about this ad's impact on the Clinton and Obama campaigns, the video's meaning and its mode of dig [...]
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Friday Night Whites — Nighttime Drama Don’t Respect My Conway Twitty
Kelly Kessler, Rutgers University — March 23rd, 2007|
As a Midwestern native born and bred in the middle of steel mill country, I have been struck by the recent high profile televised appearances of the white working class, “red necks,” and “white trash.” My Name is Earl flaunts omnipresent trailer parks, flannel shirt clad protagonists, and barroom brawls, while Friday Night Lights eschews the conspicuous consumption of Everwood and Dawson’s Creek for jobs in strip clubs and burger joints. The sitcom Earl appears—at least to me—to [...]
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Brown Masculinities, Quick and Swinging
Hector Amaya, Southwestern University — March 22nd, 2007|
In Ugly Betty, ABC's hit sitcom, Justin is Betty's twelve-year-old nephew. He is a queer pre-pubescent Latino, which makes him a radical characterization of Latino masculinity. His sexuality and gender are constructed within a system of masculinities that includes the gentle, loving masculinity of his grandfather (Ignacio), and the thuggish violent masculinity of his estranged father (Santos). In this clip, we see Justin perform a musical in NY City subway, a space for difference. That Santos st [...]
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Blob: Ironic Meta-Television in Italy
Michela Ardizzoni, University of Louisville — March 21st, 2007|
"Blob" is daily, 30-minute program on the third channel of Italian public television (Raitre). The principle behind the creation of this successful and long-lived program is the ironic (but meaningful) juxtaposition of images broadcast on Italian public and private television networks. By selecting brief snippets of footage that aired the day before and editing them without any verbal comment, the creators of "Blob" offer a pungent view of the status of television in Italy and its role in portra [...]
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The Many (Unauthorized) Faces of Superman
Avi Santo, Old Dominion University — March 20th, 2007|
OK, so fans are able to use material culture in ways that often exceed, even occasionally transgress officially sanctioned uses. Superheroes are rich for these types of re-workings precisely because they are branded commodities marketed as Americana. Here are two of thousands of superhero revisions found on Youtube. I like the first clip because it makes fantasy play – something intended to instill an emotional bond between consumer and brand – into something simultaneously mundane and bizar [...]
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Steel Magnolia: Nancy Grace and the Epistemology of Place
Hollis Griffin, Northwestern University — March 30th, 2007